Stephen Monteiro: How Tech Got Needy: Episodes in Device Intimacy
March 26 | 16:30 - 18:00
Clusters: Media and Materiality
Networked personal media devices construct an animated intimacy, fostering user trust and emotional dependence. Viewing this development through a historical eye, this talk explores examples of object-oriented digital intimacy that emerged at the turn of the twenty-first century. Drawing from Needy Media (recently published by McGill-Queens University Press), it will consider how user-device closeness was baked into consumer electronics from 1995 to 2005 through a range of hardware and software cues. These elements collectively tapped psychological vulnerabilities toward affective impact, situating the device as a lively, but needy, presence in the life of users.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Stephen Monteiro is a faculty member in Communication Studies at Concordia University. In addition to Needy Media, he is the author of The Fabric of Interface (The MIT Press) and Screen Presence (Edinburgh University Press), and the editor of The Screen Media Reader (Bloomsbury).
March 26, 2026
4:30 – 6 PM
Milieux Resource Room EV 11.705